Most Valuable High School Subject

What was the most valuable / helpful class you took in high school?

Upon reflection, my answer surprised me.

I'd have to say learning how to touch type in ninth grade has paid the most dividends; this was during the pre-computer era, and I owned a manual typewriter: as my path was college prep, it was a necessary skill to acquire.

One of the few things I've heard my father admit to being wrong about was when he opposed me taking typing in 10th grade. He thought it was clerical work, and that I should aim higher. However, I've been sitting in front of a computer monitor much of the day for 30 years now, pecking away. Thanks to that typing class I'm pretty fast (about 50 WPM), and think it has significantly improved my productivity. It seems to me that proper typing isn't taught any longer, and most people use the hunt and peck method, which is not as fast.

Absolutely it was English. And English Writing. Expressing myself in written form is a genuine pleasure.

Speech class in ninth grade. I had to give several speeches in college courses, and I feel the speech class helped because I learned that if you don't know exactly what you want to say, don't say "ah" "um" etc. Just pause. These were taboo words we were not to use. You appear more confident, and I think when one stumble comes out, they really start to flow, degrading the speech. I feel even when I was not confident in my speech, it appeared better than it was, improving my grade.

It also has helped in job interviews.

And look now at how motivated students are to learn typing that by 9th or 10th grade they can outtype anyone now that the internet is here.

One college freshman applied to the legislature for a staff job and when asked if he could type said No, and I'm not going to learn it. They made him Clerk to the most powerful committee in the legislature. Those who could type got typing jobs.

Type? One computer language just went from deffun to df for Define Function. its faster but is it more readable and understandable?

I can't officially say typing, because I learned to type in 8th grade. I've worked with guys who type with two fingers and I feel sorry for them.

I don't think I can name any one class, but it was the teachers and the classes as a whole.

For instance, Chemistry has little to do with what I do now, but I learned organization skills from that teacher, among other things. In programming class, I acquired a love of problem solving through programming, but the class was more helpful in life because the teacher focused on financial problems - amortization, interest, time value of money, etc.

Literature. I was always a big reader and I still read
for hours a day, on the net mostly. I got thru HS
because I was always reading a book in most of
the classes I was in. Several teachers even told me
I had flunked their class but because I was always
reading they knew I was smart, so they passed me.
In 9th grade I'd already read all the lit books in the
classes ahead of me, cover to cover. I was that guy
in the Twilight Zone episode who just wanted to be
left alone so he could read.

History, Chemistry and Literature.

I would have said English, but I learned that during junior high school with a private teacher. When I took the English grading test for high school, I scored high enough I was not required to take English

Algebra by far.

I'll agree with English/Literature...of course it doesn't hurt that I have a BA in it, lol.
IMHO, being able to understand what you're reading is the absolute most CRITICAL skill in the world...

I agree with some other posters that it was a specific teacher that was most valuable more than the class content. There were a few teachers that were just a level above the others. I took an AP history class and I don't think the history I learned has been that valuable, but the teacher required us to write an essay a week. Those essays and her critiques really helped me improve my writing skills. That has been very useful to me in the years since then.

It would really be difficult to pick out one class that was most important. My career was based mostly on the math and science courses. The English composition classes provided better communications ability than most in my field, while the Latin and French classes (even though I never learned to speak the language) contributed to my understanding and usage of English. I would have to consider it the combination of technical subjects and the ability to communicate them that was most valuable, but I can't name just one course.

The other courses in my high school curriculum were quite important, even though I wouldn't consider them likely candidates for "most valuable" status.
Even the shop classes that I took proved quite useful in both my work and private life; and I did get that typing course in 12th grade when it was still atypical for the college-bound crowd. I think that list only leaves out the PE classes and some history/government -- while they may not have been "most valuable" to me, I certainly don't regret having taken any them.

Great question, I had to think for a while on it. Ultimately, I don't think I had any particularly valuable classes or teachers in high school. I went to a private Catholic high school, one of the best in the nation academically, from which I just barely graduated with a passing GPA. It might have just been my total apathy but I didn't find anything interesting the entire time I was there. There were a few fun classes: Photography, Film Making, and Off-Campus Phys Ed, but I didn't really learn anything that I from those that I use now.

We had a hybrid typing/programming class taught on some Apple IIe's. I knew how to type well already but was really excited for the programming aspect. The programming section began in the last two weeks or so of class. It was in BASIC and consisted of drawing of an image of a sailboat on the screen by programmatically drawing each line of color on the screen. That was it. No conditionals, variables, or anything else. I can still remember how heartbreaking it was.

My biggest disappointment with high school looking back was that they offered absolutely no classes that taught practical life skills. It was all hardcore college prep. I was never taught how personal finances worked, how to handle a job interview, management, business skills, etc. My current job requires heavy computer use, written communication, leadership, business, and math skills. All of those I had to learn myself; at first through trial and error and then from reading articles online and reading books.

In hindsight, this was a really depressing question.

The Eng/Lit teacher in 11th and 12th grade
made us learn 10 new words a week, spelling
and meaning. Test every Friday. That was
invaluable to me, I learned hundreds of words
that I still use today.

As opposed to the Wizard's parent, my mom required that I take my first typing class in elementary school. As she put it, "When you grow up to be a failure, and you will, at least you can always get a job as a secretary."

The best part of the typing classes was when the school upgraded from the IBM Selectrics to some fancy schmancy word processing typewriter during the summer. The first class of the new semester, we took a typing test. The teacher proudly told me that I successfully typed 75 words per minute with no errors. I looked straight at her and said, "No, the machine types 75 words per minute. I finished typing this page about 30 seconds ago." They had to bring back one of the IBM Selectrics and I had to sit in the corner with it because the new fancy typewriters couldn't keep up with my typing speed.

Typewriters led to computers, which led to me launching a virus that shut down my middle school's computers, which led to getting a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, which led me to hate computer work.

I would say the most valuable high school subject I had was math. I had computer classes in high school, but by then I already knew more than the instructors. Programming classes didn't come until college. Math has always stuck with me and let me do a large variety of things.

That being said, my most important high school teacher was my US History/Constitution teacher. I remember nothing from the class itself, but I remember her teaching all kinds of valuable life skills.

Pre Calculus- The teacher, Bro. Fuld gave me a D instead of my earned 47% because I promised never to take Calculus again. I learned it was important to know what you are good at and more importantly not good at. I am actually a decent math student and it makes sense to me intuitively but once I start seeing greek letters and long formulas... you can count me out!!... my mind goes blank.

Quote: Wizard

One of the few things I've heard my father admit to being wrong about was when he opposed me taking typing in 10th grade. He thought it was clerical work, and that I should aim higher. However, I've been sitting in front of a computer monitor much of the day for 30 years now, pecking away. Thanks to that typing class I'm pretty fast (about 50 WPM), and think it has significantly improved my productivity. It seems to me that proper typing isn't taught any longer, and most people use the hunt and peck method, which is not as fast.

That is when I tool it, I was one of the last batches to take it on a typewriter. A woman I worked with a few years younger than me said they taught it different in the computer era. Gone was the A-S-D-F-J-K-L-; method and they types what they saw on the screen or something. My dad once asked where I learned to type so fast on the computer and I sais "typing class." I clock at about 50 WPM but you cannot compare that to back in the day, on a typewriter I did high 20s. 35 was very fast for students then. 50 would be what the secratary to the CEO of US Steel did.

I go along with I can't say just one, but to ignore the real academic ones that just build knowlege the class I use most was a Building Trades class. We learned plumbing, electrical, masonry, and wood finishing. Nothing more than an intro, but I still use it all the time. And I have the story where 15 or so students failed because they were too cheap to buy even one $0.80 fuse between them.

Quote: EvenBob

Literature. I was always a big reader and I still read
for hours a day, on the net mostly. I got thru HS
because I was always reading a book in most of
the classes I was in. Several teachers even told me
I had flunked their class but because I was always
reading they knew I was smart, so they passed me.
In 9th grade I'd already read all the lit books in the
classes ahead of me, cover to cover. I was that guy
in the Twilight Zone episode who just wanted to be
left alone so he could read.

The ending of that one would be my worst nightmare also!

Easily my speech class. It helped me with giving speeches and presentations, and also helped me with my confidence. Took another speaking course in college and that was also excellent.

Quote: Wizard

It seems to me that proper typing isn't taught any longer, and most people use the hunt and peck method, which is not as fast.

Me too.

My daughter learned to type early in high school and is very good.
She uses something that is even faster now.

Voice to print software has started to take hold.
Keep pushing computers in front of the youngest ones.

Quote: guido111

Voice to print software has started to take hold.
Keep pushing computers in front of the youngest ones.

I was talking about talk-to-type a few weeks ago. For me it has a problem that my brain doesn't "think right" for writing unless my fingers are on the keyboard. If it worked perfectly, and it is close, I still would need to type things. I wonder if this will fade as the youngsters can just dictate their themes on wanting Red Ryder BB guns instead of think-type-think-type we do now?

I exclaimed to my trig teacher "this is so pointless, I am never going to use this in life!". Knowing I was a jock she replied, "You don't lift weights in a football game do you?". That was my most valuable class.

I agree with the speech and typing classes being extremly valuable but I took typing in middle school and speech in college.

I really enjoyed debate class. It taught me never to show
emotion when arguing a point and never ever resort to
name calling or slander, it means you've run out of ideas.
I laugh when I see people here stoop to that level right
away, especially when talking to Mrjjj and others. If you
have nothing constructive to add, fine. Calling somebody
an idiot to make up for your inability to argue coherently
would get a failing grade in debate.

Quote: guido111

She uses something that is even faster now.
Voice to print software has started to take hold.
Keep pushing computers in front of the youngest ones.

That's actually wrong...I can go WAY faster than someone can speak and the "naturally speaking" software can decipher the audio...
It's funny, since we're on the subject of typing/keyboarding...
I took keyboarding in high school and I didn't really do very good..we HAD to use the "Home Row" bullcrap...to this day, I type upwards of 100wpm, and I do not use that crap...I actually have memorized where the keys are at on the keyboard...when I type, I've been told my hands really just "shake" on the keys rather than actually STRIKE a key (Because my hands move so fast)..I actually have a difficult time with "new" keyboards because it requires me to "wear in" the buttons (like I said, I have a very lit hit on the keys)

Latin. I know i know but anytime I see a word I do not recognize I can always use the Latin base and it's general meaning to at
least guess at what the writer meant.

I learned typing on an IBM Selectric.

However, my answer to the question is computer programming. It was not long into that class that I knew I found my calling in life. This would be followed by math. Los Alamitos High School had a great math department, and I owe much of my success to it.

Can't think of anything really. I don't remember much of any class.
High school classes have taught me disregard for authority, arrogance, taking shortcuts, ignoring criticism, caring less.

Maybe the overall experience of going there for no particular reason was character-building, the habit got me through most of college where there usually was a reason to.

Not touching the whole "life lessons" thing, you're going to get your life lessons at school, on the streets, around the hood, on your farm, or wherever you grow up, so long as you do, the school deserves no credit for that.

I got a 4.0 in high school and was the valedictorian of my tiny class (26 students), but I can't say that any specific subject was incredibly useful. I learned to type in 3rd grade, so that's out. I loved math and rocked AP Calculus, but I eventually went into software engineering, which uses pretty much zero calculus in industry software development (maybe there's some used in graduate-level CS research).

It's a good question but honestly I don't know if I have an answer. Playing football probably taught me more life skills, teamwork, dedication, hard work, etc. than any of the classes I took.

Typing was mandatory in 10th grade. It was IBM Selectrics
and it was for college. Somebody else mentioned that HS
was all about preparing for college 45 years ago.

There were no keyboards, not that I ever saw. Nobody
ever talked about computers, except on Star Trek. We
saw a movie in class in 1965 that was about what to
expect in 1990. Flying cars, 500mph trains, jets that went
Mach 3. Mom had an all electric home with microwaves
and no ovens. Robot vacuums did all the cleaning, like on
the Jetsons. No mention of computers of any kind, or
remote controls or flat screen TV's. Food was all freeze dried
and you just added water and popped it into the micro.

All time great Forum question. Kudos.

English. No question.

The foundations for english, math and science were learned in grammer school, but typing was only taught in High School. So, I would agree with MrV that learnig the fundamentals of typing to be most valuable.

Typing is something we all have in common.
I wonder how long before people can say
'I remember when we had to type to use
a computer!'

Band.

No, I don't use any of my musical skills and haven't in many years. The reason it was most valuable for me is that the band director (and he never really knew this until I shared it with him a year or two ago) gave a crap about me and allowed me to be a part of something as my family fell apart and a new one formed. It wasn't a perfect deal--I struggled with drinking a bit in high school and I was not the perfect kid--but it got me a diploma. The diploma allowed me to get into the Marine Corps and helped on the way to my future.

I went from failing out to straight A's...

Quote: Wizard

I learned typing on an IBM Selectric.

In my high school typing classroom, we had two IBM Selectrics and a room full of manual clunkers. Only those students who had demonstrated a degree of skill on the Royal manual typewriters were allowed to attempt using the Selectrics. The ones we learned on looked a lot like this model. Of course, this was back in 1962-63. Actually, I have to admit that the Royal manuals were pretty good machines, and they held up well even under the abuse of high school students.



Now I use a computer keyboard that looks like this:

Compare the slopes of the typewriter and computer keyboards and the motion of depressing a key -- it's amazing that the typing technique translates at all. At least most of the keys (not all) are in the same arrangement.

I was in typewriter heaven with the Selectric at good ol' Los Al. Before that, the only typewriter I knew was a POS my parents had. I don't remember the brand but some of the letters took ages to come down after striking the paper, and if you hit the next key before it did then it would cause a collision. So it took forever to type anything.

In college term papers had to be typewritten. About one student in ten had a typewriter and the other 90% had to beg to borrow them. There were some you could use in the UCSB library, where they were very junky. Sometime along the way my parents gave me a typewriter for Christmas, which I used often. It was a pretty nice one, but not in the league of the Selectric.

I doubt my kids have ever seen a typewriter. Then again, my father probably thinks I'm spoiled from never having had to suffer the slide rule.

I went to a college prep school in Austin, class of 12 grads in 1982. We didn't have a typing class, but we all had algebra, calculus and trig, which I thought were boring and useless. Literature was okay, I'm still a big reader, but of non-fiction only. I'd say the biggest lesson I got was learning second languages. I took 3 years of Spanish (useful in Texas) and one of Latin, which expands the mind in ways you can't understand if you haven't learned it. Also music theory and reading sheet music expands the mind. Music is just like speaking another language, being able to read what others have written.

Regarding teachers themselves, I remember the teachers I despised the most, but have forgotten the pushovers. I remember the hard-asses now as the most caring, rather than the meddling d-bags I thought they were at the time. I'd like to tell them now "Sorry I was such a insolent childish student. You were right all along. Thanks."

This was the monster we used in 1965. The Selectric was only
4 years old and the golf ball was revolutionary.

I wish I had learned to type. I get a pretty decent rate out of my two finger touch typing, but it could be so much faster. Wasn't a class at school, though. My jock buddy says typing class was the best semester he spent at age 15, as the hockey career didn't pan out, but the typing skill is useful.

I can't think what my most valuable class was. My Maths class was bloody lousy due to a new curriculum (which was cancelled after two years), but I did enjoy it earlier on. English wasn't enough reading, and too many scripted texts. Physics and Chemistry and General Science are still useful. I did Electronics and advanced Math at 17 and 18, and that's set me up for life in my work. I'd probably say the two "free choice" subjects of Media Studies and Economics though were the most useful, as they gave me a wider appreciation for the world than my narrow geeky science/math/engineering nerdy subjects.

Although we are computerized in my office, I still have our IBM Selectric up and running, and pay to have it tuned / repaired / maintained once a year by a typewriter repairman.

Surprising how much use the machine gets, not just by my staff but by all the other women whose bosses are too cheap to buy a decent, reliable old school typewriter that works day in, day out.

Tiebreak between History and Constitutional Law.

At home we had a portable Olivetti and a bigger Olympia, both purely mechanical. The day we bought and Apple ][e and a printer, I quit using the typewriters. At my dad's office they had a big, electric machine (I forget the brand). We kept using it til the business closed in 2007, though by that time it was only used to write checks.

Quote: Doc

Compare the slopes of the typewriter and computer keyboards and the motion of depressing a key -- it's amazing that the typing technique translates at all. At least most of the keys (not all) are in the same arrangement.

The QWERTY Keyboard is yet another thing that stays the same because it was made a standard years ago and change would be disruptive. It is made this way so you type slower. Keys jammed when people used some of the early ones, so QWERTY was made. An egronomics expert at a company I worked for was telling me how some people got hand injuries typing and we were talking about this. He loved it when I gave him the trivia that they moved a key so salesmen could type the word "TYPEWRITER" using only the top row. The dude actually typed it to prove it to himself.

As for learning, we were on to Selectric II adnd IIIs when I learned. The IIIs had very few improvements, but the IIs were way nicer than the Is.

When I first arrived at high school in 1974, my best friend, who was one year ahead of me, dragged me into the math center and sat me down in front of a teletype terminal. It was attached to a computer in the next town, and had a variety of programs built in. It was clunky, and ran slowly. But it was intriguiging. It looked like this, except it had it's own stand.



He showed me the Star Trek program.

I was soon cutting some of my classes to play the Star Trek program, until I finally got bored with it and decided to see what other programs the system had.

Among other things, it had a series of programs designed to teach programming, in BASIC.

As a result, nearly everything I know about computers, has been self-taught. My current job title is "Computer System Specialist" for an electrical supply warehouse, managing a unix system.


That teletype was one of my earliest experiences with a keyboard. When I took the typing class later that year, I felt that I was faster on the teletype than on a typewriter. On the other hand, even today, I'm not a true touch typist. I tend to use only 6 fingers, but I'm fairly fast, and accurate.

It was the following year that I took the introduction to computers and BASIC programming courses. I, of course, already knew all that was being taught.

I did well in my other math classes, but I generally like math. Not that it's done any good. As can be seen in some threads, I sometimes totally screw up the formulas to figure out some of the questions presented, and at BlackJack, I sometimes freeze like a "deer in the headlights" while trying to evaluate my hand. ("Evaluate" means to add the value of several cards. Sigh.)

With the exception of the Science Fiction literature class, I hated, absolutely HATED, my English literature and grammar classes, and did poorly in them. On the other hand, I feel that today I have a fairly strong grasp of vocabulary, am a reasonably good speller and use good grammar. (On the other hand, I had to edit this post, because I originally stated I use good grammer.)

I did poorly in history, except for the one semester where the teacher announced on the first day that: 1) He does open-notes tests, and 2) everything on the test would have previously been on the blackboard. I guess I'm the only one that believed him or took good notes, because that was the only year I did well in history. On the other hand, it skewed my parent's belief about my history aptitude.

In Electricity shop, I managed to burn out part of my bench causing a gnarly cloud of smoke. The room had it's own breaker panel, and this event caused the breaker for my bench, as well as the main breaker for the room, to trip.

I did well in graphic arts (architecture). I think it has helped me in my sideline career doing design work and DeskTop Publishing on my Mac.


Bottom line, my most valuable high school moment was when my buddy showed me that terminal. But the most valuable subject? It would probably take a gun to my head to come up with an answer. My knee-jerk response would be the English classes, because, despite bad grades, it seems that I actually learned something in those classes.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

... On the other hand, even today, I'm not a true touch typist.

O.K., so it looks like time for me to make a post that the next ten readers will flag to make it go away ....

Back in the '60s there was a report going around that only 40% of the clerk-typists employed in the typical office environment were touch typists. The rest of them were hunt 'n' peckers.

Quote: AZDuffman

The QWERTY Keyboard is yet another thing that stays the same because it was made a standard years ago and change would be disruptive.

Actually, you can get drivers that will make your keyboard act like it has a Dvorak layout, or other layout.

Then it's a simple matter of swapping the key-caps, except it's kinda hard to swap keycaps on a laptop....

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Actually, you can get drivers that will make your keyboard act like it has a Dvorak layout, or other layout.

Then it's a simple matter of swapping the key-caps, except it's kinda hard to swap keycaps on a laptop....

I am too far into life to switch. I am a mixture of touch-and hunt typing. FWIW, you cannot type on a computer same as a typewriter since thy moved the "return" key ever so slightly left.

When I took computer classes in HS they were so new the courses were being designed as we took them and the teachers were often just weeks ahead of us. It was the glory days where the phrase "my computer crashed, can I have another day to turn in that paper" worked if your computer did crash or you watched the new episode of "Moonlighting" the night before. To make matters worse, the teacher who did know the most died of brain cancer. Lost his senses right there in the school and never came back. Sad, even though I never even knew him.

Some students could type and some could not. The new teacher said we were the last class getting in the door without taking personal typing first.

To this day I credit coming of age in this era for being able to sit down and figure things out, and not just computers. I am finally getting my mother to understand this so she does not freeze if something goes wrong. No matter how much better computers get I doubt anyone will see the jump we did 1980-2000. It must have been the same way 1900-1920 with cars.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

I did poorly in history, except for the one semester where the teacher announced on the first day that: 1) He does open-notes tests, and 2) everything on the test would have previously been on the blackboard.

My junior high history teacher, whom I was lucky enough to have on the first and third years, was a hard taskmaster. On day one, she explained her purpose wasn't to get us to memorize dates and events and then repeat them, but to understand the why, how, when and who of history. True to form, she never once asked a date in a test. Her tests always consisted of only four questions, and if you didn't fill two pages, front and back, with tight print, you weren't even trying to answer. The final was six questions. She also assigned books to read, including "All's Quiet on the Western Front," "Mila 18," and "Is Paris Burning?"

In short, she was one of the best teachers I ever had (the other was my English teacher). Oh, she also ruled her classroom with an iron fist, and she laid on sarcasm and irony with a trowel (and that explains something, I'm sure).

About the only regret I have is she only taught modern hsitory (meaning from the Renaissance onward). I'd have appreciated taking ancient history with her as well.

My HS was 3 years old when I started 9th grade. It was
in suburbia and was 100% white, not even any Hispanics.
210 in my graduating class, all blond haired blue eyed
white kids. W MI has the largest settlement of people from
the Netherlands in the world.

We had a dress code. No jeans, shirt had to have a collar,
no pants on the girls. Boys hair couldn't touch the top of
their ears. Misbehave in gym and you got the paddle, just
like the one in Animal House. Classrooms were totally
silent, if you mouthed off you got detention and then you
were kicked out if it continued. The education we got was
at least equal to a 4 year degree from a state college now.
Better probably.

Cause trouble on the bus and you were let
off at the next stop, even if it was 10 miles from your
house. Had a male driver kick a loud mouth off by opening
the back door and kicking the kid in the ass so he landed
face down in the gravel beside the road. He'd go to prison
if he did that today.

Quote: TIMSPEED

I actually have a difficult time with "new" keyboards because it requires me to "wear in" the buttons (like I said, I have a very lit hit on the keys)

If you do an excessive amount of typing, as I do, switch to "Das Keyboard", that's the brand name. They are pricey, around $130, but since I type around 120 wpm, I find it necessary. Light touch on the keys, proper feedback. I can't stand the new fangled keyboards that come with computers.

Quote: buzzpaff

Latin. I know i know but anytime I see a word I do not recognize I can always use the Latin base and it's general meaning to at
least guess at what the writer meant.

It used to be that growing up Catholic gave you a head start for a legal or medical profession learning Latin from the Mass. Not any more LOL I also took Latin from a Jr High Principal who was a defrocked Priest and taught Latin in a 1-9 grade school in what was a very rural area.